mostly open RP (to invitees and wedding-crashers): Henry and Camilla tie the knot.

[c_macaulay]

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[charlesmacaulay]

Better to get this overwith, Charles thought, straightening his shoulders as he crossed the room. He smiled at his sister, then turned to Henry and silently held out his hand.

This was no truce, however, but a declaration of war - and the better man would win. Charles intended to be that better man. He even managed a small smile for Henry, mostly by imagining his outstretched hand held a gun.

[h_m_winter]

Henry took her hand and squeezed it lightly. "I think Silas will take care of him," he said, hoping the monk wouldn't be too...messy...about it. "Don't worry about him. It's what he'd want."

It was what Bunny would want, and if Henry had anything to say about it, that want would get him killed. Yet again.

[fabernathy]

Francis wanted to ask more, but then Henry spoke, and his curiousity over that outweighed everything else momentarily. "What do you mean by that, Henry? What he'd want?" Did he mean Bunny? Silas? "Why, what is that big fellow going to do to him? He can't kill him, not here."

Not that Francis was sure that would be a very good idea, anyway. Bunny's death had seemed necessary at the time, but it had wound up making everyone's life a living hell. As much as he wanted Bunny out of the picture, and for good, Francis had the creeping, superstitious notion that trying to get rid of him again would simply result in more terribleness.

He bit his lip and fished for his cigarettes (his poor, naked cigarettes -- the vandals had even taken his case), offering them around needlessly before lighting one for himself. "You don't mean that, do you?" he asked tightly. "You know."

[c_macaulay]

Camilla wasn't quite sure what Henry's words meant, either -- he could be so opaque sometimes. She hardly cared. What mattered was that Bunny had just tried to ruin her wedding.

"Whatever Silas does to Bunny, he deserves it. I'm sure Silas won't let him hurt Charles, either," this observation meant to reassure Francis. Camilla was not completely thoughtless, not all the time anyway.

"God only knows how he even found out there was a wedding to spoil. We certainly didn't invite him. Obviously." Francis's offer had reminded her of the forgotten cigarette she'd been holding, and she raised it now to her lips, taking a long drag before she continued. "You'd think he'd have learned already that making a nuisance of himself doesn't pay."

Her face was absolutely blank.

[h_m_winter]

Yes, how did Bunny find out about the wedding? It was a question Henry had been trying to ignore, for the sake of maintaining his own blood pressure. There were very few people who could have told him--very, very few people who knew all the Hampdenites, and still fewer who would know their history. His eyes narrowed.

Of course, his first suspicion fell on Charles. It was always possible someone like Professor Evans or Professor Dumbledore could somehow have cooked up something like that (which showed how little Henry knew about both of them), but Charles was always Henry's first suspect. He couldn't prove anything, however, and without proof he couldn't say anything, either. He'd known Charles's act was too good to be true, though....

"Bunny never learns," he said, forcing himself back to reality. "Even after everything, he never learns."

[fabernathy]

"Well, he wouldn't be Bunny if he did, would he?" Francis drawled, calming slightly with the effects of the cigarette. "He would be-- oh, I don't know, someone with sanity and class, and a better life expectancy than something that runs out onto the road to get wedged under the tires." The irony of the fact that 'something running onto the road' was their original excuse for all the blood, the night of the farmer's murder, escaped him. His point was merely that Bunny really was practically looking to get killed, this time.

His suspicions not forgotten, but momentarily deterred, Francis looked off after Bunny and Charles and huffed out a puff of smoke. "God. I suppose he must have... picked it up from somewhere. Someone talking." Henry wasn't the only one who suspected Charles, but Francis was not in a million years going to voice that idea.

"You don't suppose it was that awful Evans woman, do you?"

[c_macaulay]

Sometimes things take a few minutes to sink in, and with a little shock Camilla realized what Henry's weirdly opaque words had meant (or what she thought they meant, anyway). Don't worry about him. It's what he'd want -- he meant Bunny. He thought Camilla might be worried about Bunny, even now.

Well, she hadn't liked having to kill him before. Everyone had missed him in a way, or nearly everyone (so Camilla expected), not the irritating fool of his last months but the old jovial gruff Bunny they'd first met. This, though, this time was different. Bunny was like nothing but a revenant, a bargain-bin Fury. There was nothing to regret in putting him down -- and that was how Camilla thought of it, putting him down, like a rabid animal.

Why, he's trying to take care of me. Camilla glanced at Henry's impassive face, rather touched by this. She'd stepped away from him a little, though within arm's reach, still holding hands; now she stepped back to his side, in full contact, and impulsively gave his hand an answering squeeze

[h_m_winter]

Lily might not have any class (Henry had heard the assfire story), but his bet was still on Charles. So far as he knew, Lily just didn't have the motivation for something that calculatedly nasty; Charles, however, did, scrupulously good behavior notwithstanding. Henry had little doubt Charles could be that sneaky.

"However he heard about it, thank God for Silas," he said. Up until now they'd never really needed to utilize the giant monk's bodyguard duties, but Silas would ensure Bunny didn't come back.

something that runs out onto the road to get wedged under the tires. It really was a pity there was no way to stage a car accident here--there weren't even any cars in Hogsmeade, sadly, and unless they could arrange some way for Bunny to go to London....

...hmm. That was something to turn over later, when he had both the time and the inclination. For now, he had a reception to circulate through, and a wife to comfort.